Social Stability - 127. page

On November 20, 2012, The Beijing News reported that five boys were found dead in a dumpster in Bijie, Guizhou Province. An elderly woman, a rubbish collector, discovered the bodies. Beijing News said that the boys had apparently taken refuge from the cold by staying in the dumpster; they burned charcoal in order to keep warm. The preliminary cause of the deaths was determined to be carbon monoxide poisoning. Several dozen policemen sealed off the funeral home to which the bodies were transported. Three or four days earlier, the boys had been seen in rags looking for food and rotten wood they could burn to keep warm.

[Editor’s Note: It was later confirmed that the boys were between 9 and 13; all belonged to the same extended Tao family. They were the sons of three brothers who are poor. Ironically, two are garbage collectors in another city. Li Yuanlong, the reporter who broke the story about the boys’ deaths, disappeared after the police forced him into a vehicle.]

Sources:
The Beijing News, November 20, 2012
http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2012/11/20/234677.html
Radio Free Asia, November 22, 2012
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/boys-11222012152908.html

VOA reported that, on November 9, 2012, Google’s online service in China was seriously disrupted. According to Google, starting on Friday morning, Google experienced a sharp drop in the number of its online users. A consumer report from Google indicated that Google’s search engine and email service were down.

According to VOA, the disruption took place during China’s 18th Congress; nor was this the first time it happened. In 2010, after Google announced it would end its online filtering and censorship, its service in China was
shut down a number of times. In June 2012, Google warned its Chinese users that there were sensitive words and phrases that might cause the Internet police to investigate them.

VOA wrote that, even though Google openly challenges Beijing’s authority, its business in China continues to grow:  “Google has hired more engineers and sales force personnel and has continued to provide business and online advertising services to Chinese companies.”

Source: Voice of America, November 9, 2012
http://www.voachinese.com/content/google-20121109/1543059.html

According to a recent survey of China’s civil servants (government employees), 38.53 percent of those surveyed experienced that the reality of their government jobs turned out to be way below their expectations. Over 70 percent responded that large scale downsizing of the government is likely. With respect to the future of a government career, 39.10 percent are “preparing to retire early, just in case,” to play it safe; 10.11 percent are considering leaving the government for either a job in the private sector or to continue their education. The remaining 50.79 percent are not optimistic about their career prospects; their attitude is, "one step at a time, and deal with changes by not changing.”

Source: Xiaoxiang Morning News reprinted by Sina.com, October 31, 2012
http://edu.sina.com.cn/official/2012-10-31/1501360447.shtml

The United Nations Population Fund and the China National Committee on Aging held a forum on October 22, 2012. A research study discussed at the forum suggested that, in the year 2010, an average of 24.1 percent of China’s seniors were dependent on their pensions for their living expenses; this figure is up 4.5 percent from 2000. Another 40.7 percent of seniors relied mainly on support from their family members. There was also a large gap between the urban and rural regions. Among the seniors living in the city, 66.3 percent relied heavily on their pensions, but only 4.6 percent of seniors were able to rely on their pensions as their major source of income. The study estimated that the senior population will reach 430 million or more, or 30% of the total population, by the year 2050, which means that one out of every three people will be seniors.

Source: Xinhua, October 24, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/local/2012-10/24/c_113470941_2.htm

According to Xinhua News, Chinese graduate school student enrollment continued to grow in 2012. Xinhua reported that the graduate student enrollment was 584,416 this year, which was double the size it was ten years ago. This phenomenon has temporarily eased the employment pressure for undergraduate students. However, the number of graduate students who graduated last year surpassed the number of undergraduate students, indicating that graduate student enrollment exceeded that of undergraduate students three years ago.

Another alarming phenomenon is that the employment rate for graduate students continues to decline. In the past three years, it even dropped below the rate for undergraduate students. Statistics from the Talent Pool Market in Jiangsu Province indicated that the employment rate for graduate student was 86.62 percent compared to 90.3 percent for undergraduates and 94.1 percent for vocational or associate degree students.

Some experts also raised concerns over the quality of the education for graduate school students. A survey from 2008 suggested that 15.7 percent of the college professors oversee 10 or more graduate students while close to one percent have 20 or even 30 students. Meanwhile, the average professor to graduate student ratio in the U.S. is one to only two to three students or a maximum of five to six.

Many experts say that universities and colleges should be discouraged from seeking to expand and should reduce their enrollment size so that the quality of education can be improved.

Source: Xinhua, October 21, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2012-10/21/c_123849066.htm